What if Provenance
by Katy M VT
Summary: Meg and Ruby were demons. Madison was a werewolf. Sam hasn't had the best taste/luck with girls since Jessica. What if Sarah was a witch. Chapter 5 of 5 up.
1. Teaser

What if Sarah was a witch?

1915:

Isaiah Merchant and his family were eating dinner when there was a knock on the door. Isaiah got up to answer it.

"Sarah," he said, glancing furtively back towards the dining room. "What are you doing here?"

"I want you to leave your wife for me. You said you would." Sarah said.

"I can't just yet, Sarah. All the money is hers. We would have nothing," Isaiah said, again glancing back.

"That's not important," Sarah said. "We would have each other."

"Sarah, be reasonable. I can't leave my wife for you. It's over." Isaiah said. He had to end it. Sarah was getting too aggressive.

"It's over when I say it's over," Sarah said ominously.

"Who's there, Isaiah?" his wife called from the other room.

"Nobody," Isaiah said.

"Oh, hello, Sarah," Mrs. Merchant said, entering the hallway. "What brings you here?"

"I have a delivery for you. Your husband wanted to surprise you with a painting."

"Isaiah, how sweet," Mrs. Merchant said.

Isaiah looked concerned. He didn't know what Sarah was up to, but was pretty sure no good could come of it. Sarah leaned over and pulled up a canvas covered with a sheet. "This is really for the whole family," Sarah said, "Why don't you call the kids in?"

"Kids, come on in. Your father has a special surprise for us."

Isaiah was getting more nervous by the minute, but there was nothing he could do. "What is it, Father?" their daughter, Melanie, asked.

As Sarah pulled a jar out of her cape and answered, "It's a family portrait." She took the lid off the jar while simultaneously removing the sheet from the canvas.

"I don't understand," Mrs. Merchant said sounding confused. The canvas was blank.

Sarah took the jar and threw its contents over the family making sure to hit everyone. They all disappeared and reappeared on the canvas. "If you won't leave your wife for me, your whole family will stay with me forever."

Inside the painting, the family was screaming, but nobody could hear them except themselves and Sarah.


	2. Auction House

Present Day

Sarah looked at the picture of "her" family. "How would you like to get out of that picture?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, yes, yes," she heard.

"I'll let you out, if you do me a favor," she said.

"Anything," they all screamed.

SSSSSSSSSSSS

Mark and Ann Talesca were sitting at their dinner table eating when the doorbell rang. Mark got up to answer it.

"Sarah, what are you doing here?" he asked nervously, glancing back towards the dining room.

"I want you to leave your wife for me. You said you would," Sarah said.

"Sarah, this was a mistake. I love Ann, I'm not leaving her for you. It's over."

"It's over when I say it's over," Sarah said.

"Mark, who is it?" Ann asked coming to the door. "Hi, Sarah, what are you doing here?"

"I came to bring you a present. You two have been such good customers over the years."

"That's so sweet," Ann said. "Isn't it, honey?

"Yes, it sure is," Mark said through clenched teeth.

Sarah handed them a framed picture of a creepy looking family. "This was painted by my grandmother," Sarah said, knowing that Ann's good manners would not let her refuse such a gift.

"It's lovely," she said, not really meaning it. It was creepy as all get out.

"Thank you, Sarah," Mark said stiffly.

"Well, I really must be off now," Sarah said and turned to leave. She smiled to herself. At midnight, her former lover and his simpering wife would be dead.

SSSSSSSSS

"So, should we hang this up or what?" Mark asked.

"I think so," Ann said. "She might stop by again and we wouldn't want to hurt her feelings. Let's put it over the mantel."

"Seriously?" Mark asked.

They hung up the painting. "It's almost midnight, we should probably turn in. I've got an early day tomorrow," Ann said.

"Yeah, me too," Mark agreed.

They headed upstairs and were just turning down the covers when they heard a noise. Mark turned around to see the people from the painting, all holding razor blades. He opened his mouth to scream, but the little girl slashed his throat before a sound came out. The last thing he saw before he died, was two little boys slashing Ann's throat, while their parents looked on with smiles.

SSSSSSSSSS

Dean was standing by the bar flirting with two girls, when he saw Sam signaling to him. He tried to ignore him and continue his conversation, but Sam just signaled more urgently. "Excuse me, I'll be right back," Dean said and headed over to Sam. "What's up?"

"Mark and Ann Telesca were killed, no prints, no forced entry," Sam said.

"Sounds like a ghost," Dean acknowledged.

"Yeah, we should definitely check it out," Sam said.

Dean looked back at the girls at the bar. "We can't pick this up until morning, though, right?"

"Right," Sam agreed.

"Great!" Dean said. "There's two of them you know."

"No thanks, Dean. I can get my own dates."

"I know you can, but you don't," Dean admonished.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Dean answered and went back to the girls.

SSSSSSS

The next morning, Sam and Dean went to check out the house.

"It's completely empty. Where's all their stuff?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. Let's check for EMF. You take the second floor, I'll check down here," Sam suggested.

Twenty minutes later, Dean came back downstairs. "I got nothing."

"Me neither," Sam said. "Maybe it was a cursed object."

"But there are no objects here," Dean countered.

"I'm sure there were objects here before they died," Sam reasoned.

"So, we're back to my original question. Where's all their stuff?"

SSSSSSSSSS

After asking around, they found out that the Telescas' stuff was being auctioned off at Blake's Auction house. They went to check it out. They were wandering around the exhibits, trying to subtly check for EMF when a creepy painting caught Sam's eye. He was staring at it, mesmerized, when he heard a voice behind him. "You don't like that ugly thing, do you?"

Sam turned to see a beautiful brunette smiling up at him.

"Um, no, not exactly, it's just, um…" Sam broke off.

"I'm Sarah Blake," she introduced herself.

"Sam Connors, and this is my brother Dean."

"Hi," Sarah acknowledged Dean and then turned back to Sam. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Yeah, actually, what can you tell me about the Telesca estate?"

"They died a couple of days ago and their will specified for all of their belongings to be auctioned off and the proceeds given to charity."

"Could we see the provenances?" Sam asked.

"Sure, I don't have time to get them to you right now, but if you want to come over for dinner tonight, I'll give them to you," Sarah offered.

"That's great. He'll be here at 7," Dean interjected before Sam could turn her down.

Sam gave Dean a dirty look and then looked at Sarah and smiled, "I'll see you then."

"Great, I have to get back to working the crowd now," she smiled and turned back to the rest of the room.

Sam and Dean exited the building and Sam hit Dean on the head.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"I don't want to have dinner with her?" Sam whined.

"Why not? She's pretty and she likes you," Dean said.

Sam just gave Dean a dirty look and got into the car. Dean joined him a second later. "Sam, what's your problem?"

"Nothing, never mind," Sam sulked.

Dean decided to just let it go. Hopefully it would go well tonight, and Sam would get back in the saddle again.


	3. Masterpiece

Sam arrived at Sarah's for dinner and she greeted him at the door.

"Sarah, if you don't want to have dinner with me that's fine. You can just give me the papers and I'll leave you alone," Sam said.

"Don't be ridiculous. I always eat alone and I was looking forward to cooking for someone else," Sarah said. "But if you don't want to stay…"

"No, of course I do. I just didn't want to put you out." The last thing Sam wanted to do was hurt Sarah's feelings. She seemed like a nice girl.

"OK, I'll get the salad."

"So, you live over the shop?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I like the short commute," Sarah joked.

"You look like you have a lot of art up here, too," Sam commented.

"Yeah, why don't you look around while I get the stuff on the table," Sarah said.

Sam roamed around the room. "What's under the sheet?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm actually working on my own painting. Do you want to see it?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, sure," Sam said.

"OK, wait a minute, I want to be over there for the grand unveiling," Sarah said with a smile as she walked over with a glass of clear liquid, that Sam assumed was water.

"Ready?" she asked when she got there.

Sam nodded and Sarah whisked off the sheet with a flourish.

"It's blank," Sam said, confused.

"Not for long," Sarah said, as she poured the liquid over Sam. He disappeared and reappeared on the canvas.

"What's going on ?" Sam thought.

"I know why you came in here today, Sam. I'm a witch, I can read minds. You'll stay in that painting forever, but don't worry. I left room on the canvas. When you're brother comes looking for you, he can join you."

"No!" Sam screamed in his mind. But the only one to hear him was Sarah and she laughed, "Yes."


	4. Art History

Dean fell asleep watching a movie and when he woke up in the morning, he noticed Sam hadn't been back. "Sam, you sly dog," he said to himself. He decided to grab a shower. When he got out there was still no sign of Sam, so he decided to get some breakfast.

SSSSSSSSS

"Why are you doing this?" Sam asked Sarah.

"Because you would have found out what I am and you would have killed me," Sarah answered.

"What are you?" Sam asked.

"I'm a witch, of course, silly," Sarah said. "In 1915, I trapped the Merchant family in that painting, just like I've trapped you. Last week, I offered to let them out if they killed the Talescas."

"And they agreed?" Sam asked, incredulous.

"Sam, you forget, I'm reading your mind, you're not actually talking. I know everything you're thinking and feeling. You've been in that painting for twelve hours and you're already in despair. Imagine how you're going to feel in ninety years," Sarah said.

Sam decided not to think about that. "I don't understand, the painting is still there."

"Well, I wasn't completely honest with them. I let them out of the painting to kill the Talesca's but then they snapped back to the portrait. I wasn't completely heartless, though. I set their souls free. I was getting sick of them anyway."

"What does that mean, set their souls free?" Sam asked.

"They're dead now," Sarah said, simply.

"You killed them?" Sam asked.

"Believe me, they're a lot happier than they were in that painting. But I probably won't get sick of you for at least a couple of centuries," Sarah smiled at him. A complete feeling of hopelessness washed over Sam. That made Sarah smile all the more.

"Don't worry, in time you'll forget all about Jessica," Sarah said.

"Jessica? How do you know about her?" Sam asked.

"I told you Sam I can read your mind. You've been thinking about her. Real tragedy, but now you can be happy with me, forever."

"How can I be happy trapped in a painting?" Sam asked. "Please let me out, then we can be happy for real," Sam tried.

"You really don't understand the concept of reading your mind, do you Sam? I know you're just trying to fool me. But don't worry, I'm not mad…yet. "

Sam was wondering what would happen if she got mad.

"I'll put you in storage," she answered his unasked question.

"How is that any worse than this?"Sam asked.

"Oh, believe me, you don't want that. I put the Merchants in storage for ten years for being disrespectful to me, and when I took them out they couldn't have been sweeter. Stuck behind a sheet, not able to see anything, not being able to talk to anybody. See, even when you are with someone else in a painting, when a sheet is over you, you can't hear each other's thoughts."

"Big deal, I don't want to talk to you anyway," Sam said snidely.

"You say that now, but believe me, when I'm all you have, you'll think of me differently. Now that I think of it, maybe I shouldn't trap Dean in with you. I should probably get him his own canvas and stick him straight in storage," she taunted.

"Just leave him alone," Sam said.

"That's not an option," Sarah said. "However, if you play nice until he gets here, I'll put him in with you," she promised.

When Sam cleared his mind, Sarah said, "I'll take that as a yes."

SSSSSSSSS

"Well, I hate to ruin your fun, but we do have work to do," Dean said as he dialed Sam's number.

"This is Sam. Leave me a message."

"Sam, call me when you get this. We have to find out what killed those people," Dean said and hung up. He waited an hour and called again. He got Sam's voice mail again.

"Guess, I'm going to have to go get you, moron," he said. He got into his car and drove over to Sarah's house.


	5. Chapter 5

Sam heard the unmistakable sound of the Impala's engine. "No, Dean, leave," he thought.

"So, Dean's here, is he?" Sarah asked. "Time to get ready."

"What are you going to do?" Sam thought.

"You'll see," Sarah answered as she threw a sheet over him. She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower, emerging from the bathroom, just as there was a knock on the door.

Sarah walked over to the door, opened it and said, "Hi, Dean."

"Hey, Sarah, I'm looking for Sam?"

"Yeah, this is embarrassing. We slept in, he's in the shower now."

"Oh, well, you want to tell him to meet me back at our hotel?" Dean asked.

"No, wait for him," Sarah insisted. "He should be out soon," she added.

"OK," Dean said hesitantly and walked in.

"Would you like to see the painting I've been working on?" Sarah asked.

"Um, sure," Dean said. He supposed he had a few minutes to kill while waiting for Sam.

Sarah led him over to the covered picture. "No, Dean, leave!" Sam screamed, but only Sarah could hear him and smiled.

She picked up a glass off the table next to the picture and lifted off the sheet. Dean was looking at a picture of Sam. Dean turned to Sarah just as she was beginning to throw the potion on him and he deflected the glass, so that it spilled on her. "No!" she screamed as she disappeared and reappeared on the canvas next to Sam.

"What the hell?" Dean said.

"NOOO!" Sarah was still screaming, but Sam was the only one who could hear her.

"At least you can't hurt anyone else," Sam said, relieved that at least Dean was safe from her.

"We're going to be trapped in here forever. Forever, Sam, do you know how long that is?"

"Well, you should have thought about that before you decided to do it to others," Sam said. He couldn't believe he was going to be trapped in here with her forever.

"Sam , are you in there?" Dean was asking.

"Yes," Sam said.

"He can't hear you, moron," Sarah sniped at him.

"How am I going to get you out?" Dean panicked.

He started to look around. He went over to the bookcase. There were two shelves filled with books on witchcraft. "Sam, I'm going to read every one of these books, if that's what it takes," Dean promised.

"Is there a reversal in any of those?" Sam asked Sarah.

"Actually, yes," Sarah said, her spirits lifting. "Do you think he'll actually look until he finds it?"

"Definitely," Sam answered. He knew because that's what he would do if the positions were reversed.

Dean cracked open the first book and started reading. He read all day. At midnight, he was just about to give it up for the day, when he found the spell for the original potion to trap someone in a painting. He said, "Please let there be a reversal potion." He flipped the page and said, "It can't possibly be that easy."

"What is it?" Sam asked Sarah.

"He just needs to wipe over us with holy water," she answered.

Dean had gone into the bathroom, probably to get some water to bless, Sam thought.

"That's it?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, it's a pretty simple spell."

Dean emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later with a glass of water and a wash cloth. "I hope this works," Dean said, "and I hope it doesn't hurt or anything."

Dean picked up the painting and laid it down on the kitchen table. He dipped the washcloth in the holy water and lifted it up over Sam's image on the painting. He held it for a beat, afraid to actually do it in case it didn't work. He didn't think he could handle the disappointment. He took a deep breath and rubbed the cloth down Sam's picture. Sam disappeared off the canvas and reappeared next to him. Sam's legs buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

"Sam!" Dean yelled and knelt down beside him. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm just stiff. I've been in that painting for 24 hours. I can't imagine what it must have been like for that other family," Sam said, softly.

"What other family?" Dean asked.

"That painting we saw the other day in the shop is a family that has been trapped in that painting for ninety years," Sam told him.

"We should let them out," Dean said, heading towards the door.

"They're dead. Sarah 'set their souls free' after they did her dirty work for her. By the way next time I don't want to go on a date, maybe you'll listen to me."

Dean decided to ignore that comment as he helped Sam to his feet and looked at the painting of Sarah. "What about her?" Dean asked.

"Leave her," Sam said. "Who knows how many others she has done this to? She should suffer the same fate." He leaned over the painting and said, "Did you hear that Sarah? You're going to be trapped in there forever."

"NOOOOO!" Sarah screamed over and over, but nobody could hear her.

Sam and Dean headed out the door without a backward glance. As Dean slammed the door, the glass of holy water tipped over and fell onto the painting. It slowly worked its way down Sarah's form, until she disappeared from the canvas and reappeared in the room.

"Dean, you'll pay for that and Sam will be mine forever," Sarah said, as she began to plot her revenge.

The End


End file.
